‘An existential threat’: anger over UK government plans to allow AI firms to scrape content

Ministers are facing a major backlash over plans that would allow artificial intelligence companies to scrape content from publishers and artists, amid claims that the government risks “giving in” to the tech giants.

The BBC is among the organisations opposing a plan that would allow tech companies to train artificial intelligence models using online content by default, unless publishers and other content creators specifically “opt out”.

In what is becoming one of the first major AI policy rows, a series of meetings and roundtables is being planned to calm the concerns. Some in Whitehall fear publishers have not had a strong enough voice in the debate so far, but any announcement is now on hold until after this week’s budget.

The government is desperate to attract investment from tech firms as it searches for economic growth, and ministers have already announced total investment in UK datacentres of more than £25bn since the election. However, Google warned last month that Britain risks being left behind unless it builds more datacentres and lets tech firms use copyrighted work in their AI models.

Apart from issues around ownership, some publishers fear an opt-out system would be impractical as they may not know when their material is being scraped – and by which company. Smaller publishers say they face an “existential threat” should their work be used in training AI models. They argue that an “opt-in” system would give them more leverage to at least agree licensing terms, similar to those already signed by bigger players for AI access to their material.

The BBC said in a statement that its content should not be used to train AI models without authorisation and it had no agreements in place for companies to do so. “It’s critical that publishers and media companies retain control over how their content is used when it comes to AI,” a spokesperson told the Observer. “The onus should remain on AI developers to seek permission for use of content, not on publishers to opt out.”

Justine Roberts, the Mumsnet founder who has launched a legal complaint against OpenAI over alleged scraping of content, said the system being considered by ministers was “akin to requiring homeowners to post notices on the outside of their homes asking burglars not to rob them, failing which the contents of their house are fair game”.

She added: “Some in government seem to have drunk the Kool-Aid and are buying the heavily pushed story that everything needs to be cleared out of the way to ensure AI’s rapid development. When, in fact, they should be mindful of big tech’s rapacious appetite for dominance and dollars and of what gets destroyed along the way.”

Owen Meredith, chief executive of the News Media Association, said an opt-out system would be “a hammer blow to the creative industries, who have been an engine of growth for the UK economy for a decade or more”.

Chris Dicker, a board director of the Independent Publishers Alliance, said: “Using anything ever posted online without explicit consent is a direct threat to privacy. An opt-out approach isn’t enough. The government needs to step in and enforce strict safeguards before it’s too late, and not give in to the big-tech lobbying.”

However, some in Whitehall argue that an opt-out system is the one adopted in the EU through its AI Act, adding that the UK may be able to learn from how that performs.

The row is a sign of the fundamental changes taking place after the arrival of AI chatbots. Publishers were previously willing to hand access to their material to search engines because they received readers and viewers in return. But the users of chatbots can receive all the information they need without ever seeing the original publisher’s work.

Last week, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus and the actor Julianne Moore were among 10,500 signatories of a statement from the creative industries warning that unlicensed use of their work by AI companies marked a “major, unjust threat” to artists’ livelihoods.

A government spokesperson said: “This is an area which requires thoughtful engagement, and as part of that we are determined to hear a broad range of views to help inform our approach.

“We continue to work closely with a range of stakeholders including holding recent roundtables with AI developers and representatives of the creative industries, and will set out our next steps as soon as possible.”